Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Spring Forest Qigong What is Emptiness?

Hey people,

I just picked up my SFQ levels 1 & 2 from UPS. I'm so glad. I'll get ready for the retreat. Now what is Emptiness? I have seen that term before in the forum but I just want to understand a little more. Page 7 of the manual says "Everything comes from the emptiness and returns to the emptiness" - is it nothing? It can't be nothing!

I can only give my experience of the "Emptiness"

It is developed from "feeling" the space around you. You work at feeling the empty space. As you develope this feeling of the emptiness you realize that it's not empty at all but is filled with energy.

There are deeper and deeper levels of going into the emptiness, then for some reason you become aware that you are One with the Universe. It is experiential not analytical.
You'll know it when you feel it. It is a wonderful place to be.

hope that helps.

Jeff

This reminds me of the time at one of the LSC seminars when Paul guided us into the emptiness.

It literally is emptiness. Completely black, no color, no sound however one is consciously aware of oneself and surroundings. Best as I can describe it.

When Paul guided us out, I told him, hey, it didn't work Paul, I dont get it ... everything was blank but I could hear you and be aware of the surroundings ... he said, that was the point and that I had indeed gotten it.

Love and Light,

Michael

This question has been raised before and you might like to search the forum.

I've heard Master Lin answer this question and his answer is like jeffdengr's. Your experience of the emptiness is at levels or depths or layers. It is not a you got it or you don't, is more or of a how much have you joined with the emptiness.

Master Lin's directions are all you need to go into the emptiness. Mentally focused, physically relaxed and still. Those three elements work together to help you go into the emptiness. You don't have to consciously try and go there, just know that you want to then mentally focuss on you qigong. The more you follow the six keys to success the deeper you will experience the emptiness.

You are perfection.
Iam2

Thanks to all of you. I guess I can sort of see myself out of this space/time and just feel the vast universe - at least that's how I'd think about when I hear about going into emptiness. I see myself outside the galaxy - I can see all the galaxies - I'm separated from their space & time. Okay, I'll get the right feeling at the right time as I go along - I can live with that.

Once again, thanks and I get very valuable info from the forum always.

Their are two different kinds of Emptiness.
This one is the one that you get if you halve something infinitiv times.

Mathematics use that near 0 in integrals the divide it through another near 0 to get the surface area of something.

In Physics you have vacuum (which is some kind of emptiness) where you have quantum fluctuations. Some people believe the universum is created by these fluctuations, which exist in emptyness.

It is just the classic western view that "emptiness" is necessary "nothing". It difficult to express such things in the english language .

In mediations you get this type of nearly nothing emptiness in your head.

Totally nothing in your head would mean death, it is something completly different.

The one is living tranquillity the other is death tranquillity.

Prior a storm you have also that kind of living/active tranquillity, but there is a lot of energy around.

In Ki Aikido Koichi Tôhei defines Ki(Chi/Qi in Chinise) as what you get if you devide something infinitve times into two parts. And that active emptiness is the aim of meditation.

Brutha;

Your interpretation of Tohei Sensei's half, half, half, is very different than what he was talking about. In trying to describe how to maintain your energy level when it appears you have stopped physically you keep the energy going, as an example of half, half , half in your mind without really stopping. It has very little to do with emptiness and is a different type of training.

Sure the training method is different, but both try to get the same energy- (or Ki-/Chi-/Qi-) full state of being one with the universe while and not being nothing in the universe.

"Living tranquillity" may be a false retranslation, because I have read Tohei in german. (Living silence/calmness/quietness could be also Tohei's orginal words).

quote:

---

Your interpretation of Tohei Sensei's half, half, half, is very different than what he was talking about.

---

When Tôhei Sensei speaks about the difference between eastern meditation to western biofeedback methods he says that the biofeedback methods doesn't have "living tranquillity" whereas eastern meditation have.
Sure Tôhei Sensei has in addition also the concept of the Tan Tien /Hara/One Point which differ from Qigong (the Tan Tien exist in Qigong but has not as much importance).

The quoted Ki definition comes from Tohei as answer to a question after a mathematical explanation of Ki.

OK Brutha I understand what Tohei Sensei said but would you, personally, have any experiences that you could share regarding going into the emptiness?

Don't thinking it is unnatural/can't exist is in my opinion a important. you do you get thinking about not thinking which is the kind of thinking that you do not want. (to share some experiences )
To get to someplace you have to go a way. I use another than you. I could write about it but that would be rather offtopic.
The poster asked about the nature of emptiness and specificly after the meaning of the sentence "Everything comes from the emptiness and returns to the emptiness".

quote:

---

It is experiential not analytical.

---

The emptiness it self is neither experiential nor analytical, it is just what it is. Your perception of it can be experiential or analytical, but that doesn't mean that other people aren't allowed to have another perception.
I would agree with you that the experiential side of your emptiness trainings is not the same as Tôheis, but that doesn't make the point that it is the same concept invalid.